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Bridie Ryan Letter re N'hamp Soccer ClubBridie Ryan 191 Bridge Road Florence, MA 01062 November 4, 2017 Northampton City Council City Hall Room 16 210 Main Street Northampton, MA 01060 To the Northampton City Council Members, L, NOV - 9 2017 I CITY CLERKS OFFICE NORTHAMPTON, MA 01060 I thought it was important to share with the Northampton City Council the experience a group of local 11 & 12 yr. old girls had with the Northampton Soccer Club because it relates to how the city is spending our Community Preservation Act Tax money. This Fall NSC turned away a group of local girls, from their team rosters, but kept kids from other towns and cities. 1 presented to NSC administrators a way all the children could play, including the kids from other regions, but the NSC club still chose to kick out these local girls., I was surprised because they practice and play games 6 days a week on our newly constructed Florence Soccer fields, that are funded by the Community Preservation Act taxes. I thought NSC was a city program, they are described on our Recreation Department web site and in their flyer as one, but I learned from our Recreation Director, they are not. They pay a fee to rent our fields, like any league can, but have no official ties to the city. The majority of the cost of the fields' maintenance, irrigation, sports equipment, and facility upkeep are provided by Northampton's DPW. Northampton Recreation Department has a policy leagues using city fields have to include 50% city residents (they are working to increase it to 75% per league). I think it should be more and per team. If 100% of Northampton city homeowners have to pay the Community Preservation Act Surcharge, why were only 50% of the of the Northampton kids required to be in the leagues utilizing those funds? Those athletic fields should be for the enjoyment of the residents of the city, but instead they are being rented to a regional league that demonstrated no priority to include local kids. It doesn't seem right NSC is allowed to run their program off of the hard work of Northampton city families, and monopolize those fields. I think it is really important children feel their community is willing to include and invest in them, and we did not do a good job of sending that message to this group of girls this Fall. If you have any questions or would like to review my email correspondence with the NSC administrators please feel free to ask Sincerely, Bridie Ryan 413-588-1635